Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness

A bunch of stuff happened on last night's Skype call, I just only had time/energy for the dog update last night (all day, whenever I've remembered it today, I've been thinking my dad gets a dog! and I'm all excited again).

Part of the reason a bunch of stuff happened was that my parents were visiting relatives -- ones distant enough that I really like them. So I got to see and talk to them too, if briefly. They're very old and Skype on iPads isn't really their thing I think. Particularly when I talked to J, she told me when she passed the iPad to her husband L probably wouldn't be able to hear me -- I know his hearing is poor these days -- but she said "and with your accent", heh! They're from Wisconsin! I talk like they do! I forget my family thinks I have "the British accent."

Anyway, while she was talking to me, J was telling me it's so nice we have this technology, where my parents can talk to and see me when I can't visit. She said she thought of "Grandma G," the G being my grandma's maiden name (J is her cousin): coming over from Luxemburg, with a bunch of kids [I want to say six? can't remember if that's right], on her own, she made it all the way to Iowa, and she left behind a twin sister that she never saw again, they sent each other a few letters a year.

I do think about that kind of thing a lot, how different emigrating is permitted to be in some circumstances these days. Skype wasn't a thing when Andrew and I met but we had hours-long phone calls. Then I had them with my parents once I moved here. Now we do have Skype, and now family-Zoom-get-togethers are pretty normal even over shorter distances. Imagine a few letters a year. Imagine never seeing your sister again, knowing you'd never see your sister again. It'd be like you'd died, only you would be able to send a few letters a year. And your grandchildren could end up talking to their cousin's grandchildren on Skype. it's sometimes dizzying to try to think about too much.